MARIA ROTH

Engagement & Research Projects

1. Local Government Offsite Housing Accelerator (a project within the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre)

Design lead, community housing strategist, event support

2023–present, Vancouver

A multi-year, cross-sector project advancing offsite wood construction, strategic land use and policy innovation to unlock housing supply and deliver affordability, climate action and economic development in small towns, Indigenous communities and big cities in BC.

Executive Director:
Alex Boston

With:
Brenda Knights (BC Indigenous Housing Society)
Melina Scholefield (Zero Emissions Innovation Centre) and
Arjun Singh (A Better Citizen Consulting)

Project funding:
Zero Emissions Innovation Centre and the Real Estate Foundation of BC

2. Cooperative Housing Federation of BC

Workshop consultant

2024–present, Vancouver

Co-op housing educator delivering online and in-person courses to members, boards and staff on governance and member engagement.

3. Co-op Collaboratory

Project director and co-ordinator, community participant

2022–2024, Vancouver

A one year project to support non-market housing boards, engage community members on housing and neighbourhood planning and create connections with diverse community members.

Community planning and staff lead:
Sarah Brown (False Creek South Neighbourhood Association)

Community leads:
Nancy Hannum and Keith Jones (Alder Bay Co-op), Sarah-Louise Gilmore (Marina Co-op); Kim Fleming and Sarah Brown (Twin Rainbows Co-op); Flavia Marcondes and Carole Lewis (Heritage Co-op); Michael Talbot (Greater Vancouver Floating Home Co-op); Dolores Bzdel and Clara Salamanca (Creekview Co-op); and Daniela Elza and Jennifer Wyss (False Creek Co-op)

Project funding: Community Housing Transformation Centre

4. Just Community Project

Community housing researcher & graphic / artist

2022–2023, Vancouver

A one year community research and exploratory communication arts project focussed on False Creek South, Vancouver, a neighbourhood under threat of demolition and displacement by the City of Vancouver.

Project funding: Canada Council for the Arts

RECENT ENGAGEMENT & RESEARCH COURSEWORK

SFU Continuing Studies, Burnaby

Large-Scale Public Involvement Methods
Dialogue and Engagement: Principles and Concepts
Introduction to World Cafe and Open Space Technology
Design Thinking Methods for Engagement

StoryCenter, Berkeley

Digital Storytelling
Voices from the Future Present

Hollyhock

A Gathering for Facilitators

Design & Illustration Work

1. Love Rain Press

Sample pages from wholesale catalogue

Role: Market research, graphic design
2025

2. Local Government Offsite Housing Accelerator

Webinar graphic (top) and eventbrite banner

Role: graphic designer
2024

3. Love Rain Press

Notebooks (top) and framed prints

Role: Illustrator, product development
2024

4. Co-op Collaboratory

Illustration by Renske Wernrer
Butterflyway Project postcard

Role: Art director
Co-op lead: Dolores Bzdel
2024

5. Co-op Collaboratory

Example page of notes shared after creative engagement session

Role: notetaker, graphic designer
2024

6. Local Government Offsite Housing Accelerator

Event signage

Role: graphic designer
2023

7. SFU Centre for Dialogue

Sample pages from discussion brief

Role: graphic design
2023

8. UBC Campus + Community Planning

Sample pages from guide

Role: graphic design
2022

9. Just Community Project

Sample illustrations of community moments

Role: illustrator
2022

10. Place Mattering Matters Salon No 3: Leslie Kern

Sample slides from a short census data presentation. Part of an introduction for a salon with ‘Feminist City’ author Leslie Kern.

Role: presenter, census data analyst, graphic designer
2022

Part of a series of six community design salons co-organized with poet Daniela Elza and architects Richard Evans and Graham McGarva

11. False Creek South Neighbourhood Association

Map from community report showing residential property types in one neighbourhood

Role: content research, graphic design
2021

Research, Design and Engagement Services

Studio: 236–1628 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6J 1G1
Email: mariaroth.projects@gmail.com

SERVICES

Engagementdialogue, storytelling, art, participatory research, events, community-centred learning

Facilitationopen space, world cafe, storycircles, town halls
online, in-person and hybrid events

Community researchinterviews, participatory research, asset mapping, census data, surveys, documentation, photography

Design & illustrationpostcards, brochures, reports, posters, booth graphics, swag, email newsletters, social media posts

“Working with Maria on the Co-op Collaboratory has been such a uniquely empowering and supportive experience. She is such a dynamic, fun, and kind leader-collaborator. Maria has the rare but beautiful combination of a brilliant and innovative intellectual mind and a deeply compassionate heart. I can’t think of many people who can pivot so masterfully between strategic data analysis and community-gathering inclusion work. Maria leaves no stone unturned, no voice unconsidered, and no future unimagined. She is a true artist who infuses every aspect of her work and her time - the way she listens, the questions she asks, and her way of moving through the world - with creative possibility.”

— Sarah Brown, False Creek South Neighbourhood Association

Maria “goes out of her way to include others that might otherwise be overlooked....co-ops have a concern for the broader community, so they’ve been the glue and the engine that has driven the development of everything that’s happened with [False Creek South]. Maria has become a key organizer and spokesperson because she leads with both intellect and passion, and she wants everybody along for the ride.”

— Thom Armstrong, Cooperative Housing Federation of BC

I am deeply grateful to live and work on the shared, unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations